Infantino calls crisis meeting as Fifa power struggle threatens re-election

Gianni Infantino will meet senior Fifa officials in Morocco on Wednesday as he attempts to secure his position after abandoning plans to sell commercial rights linked to the World Cup.

The Fifa president has faced intense criticism, including personal abuse, since proposing the creation of a new commercial rights body to the organisation’s 211 member associations last week.

The plan involved selling a 20% stake in the body to private investors in an effort to raise $4.2bn. Critics were also angered by the involvement of a company with family connections to US President Donald Trump.

Infantino withdrew the proposal late on Friday, but the decision has not eased opposition to his leadership. Uefa has accused him of selling the soul of the game and said it no longer has confidence in him.

The dispute has thrown his expected election to a fourth term into doubt. Infantino had appeared certain to win at the Fifa Congress in Morocco in March, but several European football associations have since withdrawn their support.

More damaging could be the criticism from within Fifa itself. Secretary general Mattias Grafstrom told staff in an internal memo about a “sad and reproachable series of events” which had resulted in the project being “permanently abandoned”, according to two sources who spoke to Reuters.

“Individuals, unstable moments and unfortunate episodes come and go. The institution, its mission and its responsibility towards world football continue…,” the Swedish official wrote. He did not mention Infantino by name.

Grafstrom’s comments followed those of Fifa chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, who said staff had been “deceived” by what he called “the project of one person”.

Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest last week, while former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger distanced himself from the plan on Tuesday.

Wenger, Fifa’s chief of Global Football Development, said he had not been involved in preparing the proposal and described its withdrawal as “absolutely necessary”.

Infantino has spent the past week in Morocco, one of the co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup. The Moroccan Football Association has already confirmed that it continues to support him.

Wednesday’s meeting will take place at Fifa’s Africa office in Sale, across the Bou Regreg river from Rabat. Its immediate priority is expected to be finding a way for Infantino to remain in office until the election, which is seven months away.

An Extraordinary Congress can be requested if at least 43 Fifa member associations submit a formal written demand.

The Times of London reported on Monday that Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) want to force Infantino out by paralysing Fifa and potentially setting up their own competitions if he refuses to resign.

Concacaf, the AFC and Fifa did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report, while Uefa said it had no comment.

Concacaf, which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, and the AFC have supported Uefa’s position. However, not all national associations are expected to follow their confederations.

Qatar, hosts of the 2022 World Cup, as well as Kuwait, Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have publicly backed Infantino despite the AFC’s stance.

The Swiss-Italian has traditionally enjoyed strong support outside football’s established European and South American centres, particularly among poorer associations that depend on Fifa funding to operate.

Those associations were the main intended audience for the abandoned proposal. It promised each national federation backing the plan a payment of between $20m and $40m at the beginning of next year.

Senior African football administrators have sent messages of support to Infantino as he seeks backing from the continent’s 54 associations. The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has not yet declared a formal position.

The executive committee of Oceania’s football confederation, the smallest and least wealthy of the six, will meet next Wednesday to consider its response.

“I think it’s going to be really interesting for the international football community over the next few weeks,” New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell said on Tuesday.

“It’s really important for a country like New Zealand to make a lot of contact with its confederation. It helps when you act in unison with your confederation.”

Under Fifa’s rules, San Marino’s vote carries the same weight as those of World Cup winners Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Spain, despite San Marino’s men being ranked 211th and last in the world rankings.

Infantino’s position is also helped by the absence of an obvious rival for the election. Candidates must be nominated by 18 November.

Jordan Football Association president Prince Ali bin Hussein, who has stood twice before, lost to Sepp Blatter in 2015 and finished third behind Infantino and AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa the following year.

On Tuesday, Prince Ali accused Fifa of “blackmail”, claiming it had offered to help resolve problems in return for support for Infantino.

“We did not endorse him before and certainly will not now,” Prince Ali wrote on social media.

Reuters has contacted Fifa for a response to the allegation.

The crisis follows three days of unprecedented infighting in football administration last week, before Infantino abandoned the proposal to bring private investment into the World Cup for the first time.

He apologised for the division caused by the plan, but the episode has severely damaged what had previously appeared to be an unassailable position at the head of world football’s governing body.

Opponents now need to identify a candidate before the November deadline who can unite both the wealthy associations in football’s traditional heartlands and those that had been targeted by Infantino’s proposed financial distribution.